Left second toe wart removal

[JenLawson]

I need some help, please. I have a report for removal of a wart all I can find for warts directs to codes 17110 or 17111, but these are for destruction. This wart was excised not destroyed.

"An elliptical incision was used to remove the wart on the left second toe. The wart was removed in toto and that was sent to pathology for gross analysis."

Can anyone help me with this one?
Thanks
Jennifer

 

[Katie I Skinner-Davis]

Wart excision

I may not be the expert for this, however, it seems the documentation is lacking some info from the MD.
1st: This is a surgical procedure under the area of beign lesion until the path report comes back stating otherwise.
2nd: An eliptical incision requires measurement from the MD prior to the procedure to assist with coding for the wart removal. Since you do not have this measurement, you will have to code the lowest diameter code for the procedure.
3rd: This was on a toe on the foot which leads me to 11420: Excision, benign lesion including margins, except skin tag (unless listed elsewhere), scalp, neck, hands, feet, genitalia, excised diameter 0.5 cm or less.
4th: This code includes closure, anesthesia

Be advised that I used the 2012 CPT book for this code and you may want to double check the code in a 2013 CPT book.

Hope this helps you.

Katie I. Skinner-Davis, BSN, Flight RN, CPC-A
Captain, USAFR Retired

 

[mitchellde]

You cannot code an excision benign or malignant without benefit of a path report. Also he could be using the term excision to just indicate a removal, an excision for the use of the excision codes must be full thickness removal, so you will need to know if the excision was thru the dermal layer. without access to all the information you cannot code this as an excision. For wart destructions, removal is considered a method of destruction.

 

[JenLawson]

Thank you!